In 1885, Gustav Lindenthal, a bridge engineer who established his reputation on two notable Pittsburgh spans, was approached by officials at the Pennsylvania Railroad regarding the feasibility of a railroad crossing across the Hudson River. At that time, the Pennsylvania Railroad was at a disadvantage vis-à-vis its chief competitor, the New York Central Railroad, because it did not have a direct entrance into Manhattan.

Because of the smoke that emanated from the locomotives of the era, the railroad favored a bridge across the Hudson rather than a tunnel. After giving serious thought to a cantilever design, Lindenthal decided upon a suspension bridge because such a design would allow wider distances between piers. However, the suspension bridge would have to have a main span of about 3,000 feet, nearly twice the length of the main span of the Brooklyn Bridge completed two years earlier.

Annotation:

This page, part of a site that presents the history of New York's roads with tremendous depth, chronicles a century-and-a-half's worth of unsuccessful efforts to construct a bridge over the Hudson River, including the initial attempt by Gustav Lindenthal. Site author Steve Anderson probes the structural intricacies of the different projects with quotations and period drawings, as well as more recent photographs. However, economic details accompany architectural specifications, and Anderson paints a clear picture of the engineers' struggles to execute their job.